Connacht Tribune
Birthday snub leaves Yaya with blues
If a footballer who earns a somewhere north of a quarter of a million pounds a week can get into a complete strop over his employer’s failure to wish him a happy 31st birthday, imagine the damage such an insult could do to a mere mortal.
Yaya Toure was so upset by Manchester City’s snubbing of his special day that he was weighing up his footballing future – admittedly a slight overreaction, but it shows how important birthdays can be to some people.
For the first half of your life, it’s an excuse to get out with the lads and give it a good lash – but for the second half, it’s a day you’d prefer to forget on the basis that it’s another page torn from an ever dwindling book.
When you’re ten, you cannot sleep with the excitement of wondering if the postman will bring birthday cards – a euphemism, of course, for money – to mark your special day.
Then there’s turning 18 and perhaps 21 – the only difference between the two is that all your little old aunties turn up at your coming of age and you have to entertain them for an hour before you can get stuck into it with your mates.
But after that, as you grow older – and in this scenario, 31 qualifies as old – you tend to settle for a cup of tea and a smile; perhaps a hand-drawn card on a folded A4 sheet, with a picture that depicts you as a stick insect super hero.
You certainly won’t quit your job over it – although some companies, unlike Manchester City, won’t take that chance.
I once worked for a newspaper that automatically sent every employee a birthday card on their special day – and while it was nice that accounts remembered, this often proved more hassle than it was worth.
Because despite what Yaya might feel, there are many who’d prefer their birthday passed by quietly and without public attention – but when a card is left on your desk before you come in, your cover is well and truly blown.
And the knock-on from this is also bad news – your colleagues have a good excuse for buying you nothing because they only just found out when they saw the card….but they’d be delighted to join you for a drink later, once you’re the one paying for it.
So the card that you know was signed in advance ended up costing you money on a day when you might have had a reasonable expectation of being the recipient of goodwill and Guinness.
Yaya, of course, could buy the bar and still have change from his week’s wages – but that doesn’t seem to be the point.
It was a matter of principle that annoyed him – his Arab bosses didn’t care enough to wish their superstar midfielder all the best for his big day, which fell during City’s post-season tour of Abu Dhabi.
Just what he was talking about soon because something of a mystery in itself after a video surfaced of Toure being presented with a birthday cake by the club, which also tweeted a birthday message at the time.
But it would appear that the multi-millionaire wasn’t angling for a mere card and a cake at his work station – he’d seen other clubs do so much more than that.
“He got a cake but when it was (Brazilian full-back) Roberto Carlos’ birthday, the president of Anzhi (Makhachkala) gave him a Bugatti,” said Toure’s representative Dimitry Seluk.
“It’s not a question of money or contract, believe me. He has everything he needs. For Yaya what is the most important thing is human relationships,” explained Dimitry. “We’ve not asked any money, we don’t ask any presents. We’re only talking about attention.”
And clearly he’d personally ensured plenty of that in what must be the most petulant reaction to a missed birthday of all time.
Indeed so upset was Toure that he was thinking of quitting the club altogether, sparking something of a mini-riot among the world’s richest clubs – and presumably the dispatching of several staff to buy up all the birthday cards they could find.
Certainly no one in his entourage will ever forget his big day again, because clearly this is a man who might appear to have everything – except a Happy Birthday.
And maybe that’s where the gifted midfielder got his name – someone asked him if he’d like a big birthday party when he was a young fellow.
And jumping up and down with excitement, he clapped and shouted: “Yaya, yaya – gimme, gimme, gimme some cake.”
Significant state investment is required to address ‘shocking’ inequalities that leave cancer patients in the West at greater risk of succumbing to the disease.
A meeting of Regional Health Forum West heard that survival rates for breast, lung and colorectal cancers than the national average, and with the most deprived quintile of the population, the West’s residents faced poorer outcomes from a cancer diagnosis.
For breast cancer patients, the five-year survival rate was 80% in the West versus 85% nationally; for lung cancer patients it was 16.7% in the west against a 19.5% national survival rate; and in the West’s colorectal cancer patients, there was a 62.6% survival rate where the national average was 63.1%.
These startling statistics were provided in answer to a question from Ballinasloe-based Cllr Evelyn Parsons (Ind) who said it was yet another reminder that cancer treatment infrastructure in the West was in dire need of improvement.
“The situation is pretty stark. In the Western Regional Health Forum area, we have the highest incidence of deprivation and the highest health inequalities because of that – we have the highest incidences of cancer nationally because of that,” said Cllr Parsons, who is also a general practitioner.
In details provided by CEO of Saolta Health Care Group, which operates Galway’s hospitals, it was stated that a number of factors were impacting on patient outcomes.
Get the full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune, on sale in shops now, or you can download the digital edition from www.connachttribune.ie. You can also download our Connacht Tribune App from Apple’s App Store or get the Android Version from Google Play.
Galway 3-18
Cork 1-10
NEW setting; new opposition; new challenge. It made no difference to the Galway minor hurlers as they chalked up a remarkable sixth consecutive double digits championship victory at Semple Stadium on Saturday.
The final scoreline in Thurles may have been a little harsh on Cork, but there was no doubting Galway’s overall superiority in setting up only a second-ever All-Ireland showdown against Clare at the same venue on Sunday week.
Having claimed an historic Leinster title the previous weekend, Galway took a while to get going against the Rebels and also endured their first period in a match in which they were heavily outscored, but still the boys in maroon roll on.
Beating a decent Cork outfit by 14 points sums up how formidable Galway are. No team has managed to lay a glove on them so far, and though Clare might ask them questions other challengers haven’t, they are going to have to find significant improvement on their semi-final win over 14-man Kilkenny to pull off a final upset.
Galway just aren’t winning their matches; they are overpowering the teams which have stood in their way. Their level of consistency is admirable for young players starting off on the inter-county journey, while the team’s temperament appears to be bombproof, no matter what is thrown at them.
Having romped through Leinster, Galway should have been a bit rattled by being only level (0-4 each) after 20 minutes and being a little fortunate not to have been behind; or when Cork stormed out of the blocks at the start of the second half by hitting 1-4 to just a solitary point in reply, but there was never any trace of panic in their ranks.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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GARDAÍ and the IFA have issued a joint appeal to all road users to take extra care as the silage season gets under way across the country.
Silage harvesting started in many parts of Galway last week – and over the coming month, the sight of tractors and trailers on rural roads will be getting far more frequent.
Inspector Conor Madden, who is in charge of Galway Roads Policing, told the Farming Tribune that a bit of extra care and common-sense from all road users would go a long way towards preventing serious collisions on roads this summer.
“One thing I would ask farmers and contractors to consider is to try and get more experienced drivers working for them.
“Tractors have got faster and bigger – and they are also towing heavy loads of silage – so care and experience are a great help in terms of accident prevention,” Inspector Madden told the Farming Tribune.
He said that tractor drivers should always be aware of traffic building up behind them and to pull in and let these vehicles pass, where it was safe to do so.
“By the same token, other road users should always exercise extra care; drive that bit slower; and ‘pull in’ that bit more, when meeting tractors and heavy machinery.
“We all want to see everyone enjoying a safe summer on our roads – that extra bit of care, and consideration for other roads users can make a huge difference,” said Conor Madden.
He also advised motorists and tractor drivers to be acutely aware of pedestrians and cyclists on the roads during the summer season when more people would be out walking and cycling on the roads.
The IFA has also joined in on the road safety appeal with Galway IFA Farm Family and Social Affairs Chair Teresa Roche asking all road users to exercise that extra bit of care and caution.
“We are renewing our annual appeal for motorists to be on the look out for tractors, trailers and other agricultural machinery exiting from fields and farmyards,” she said.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App
Download the Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App to access to Galway’s best-selling newspaper.
Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Or purchase the Digital Edition for PC, Mac or Laptop from Pagesuite HERE.
Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Families queue up for school’s offer of free house
West has lower cancer survival rates than rest
Galway minors continue to lay waste to all opponents
Gardaí and IFA issue a joint appeal on summer road safety
Marathon Man plans to call a halt – but not before he hits 160 races
